Community Emergency Center For Hurricane Relief Opens In North Miami-Dade

Valencia Gunder, a Miami-Dade-based community organizer, gives a tour of the warehouse near Opa-Locka that will be used as a "community emergency operations center" following a hurricane or other disaster.

Kate Stein
/ WLRN

A center to help people in low-income neighborhoods prepare for and recover from hurricanes launched in north Miami-Dade on Saturday.

Organizers say the "community emergency operations center" builds off of Hurricane Irma last year, when community groups from across Florida mobilized to collect donations, host cookouts and provide legal support for more than 23,000 people.

"I want people to starting making this a part of their daily conversations," said Valencia Gunder, founder of the non-profit Make the Homeless Smile and a lead organizer of the emergency operations centers. "If you stay prepared, then you don’t have to get prepared."

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Leaders behind the community emergency operations center are looking for donations and funding -- and Miami-Dade's chief resilience officer says he'd like for county commissioners to help.

The center, in a warehouse at 670 Northwest 113th Street near Barry University, is the largest of eight community emergency operations hubs in Miami-Dade. After a storm, it will provide water, nonperishable food, legal aid, generators, health care and ice to neighborhoods in Miami-Dade and Broward.

It's currently funded by donations to the Miami Foundation's Hurricane Relief Fund. But Miami-Dade resilience officer Jim Murley told WLRN Saturday that he would like to see county commissioners vote to provide funding for the community emergency operations network.

"They may decide to act on it now that it’s up and running," he said.

Organizers say any and all funding is welcome. Hattie Willis, executive director of the non-profit Communities United, which works with senior citizens, said the centers are not intended to replace government help after a hurricane. Rather, she said, they're an additional resource at a time when local, state and federal resources are stretched thin.

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Hattie Willis, executive director of a community organization for seniors, says the emergency operations center is helping low-income Miamians prepare for the next Hurricane Katrina.

"What we’re preparing for is our Katrina," she said. "Who’s going to save you is you. People helping people, neighbors helping neighbors."

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Hurricane Irma uprooted homes and lives in the Florida Keys when it tore through the state last September. The storm also wreaked less visible havoc in many of Florida's low-income communities, where people without cars or living paycheck-to-paycheck struggled to buy food and supplies, and experienced extended power outages.

There's a buzzword among people who work on quality-of-life issues in South Florida: "Resilience."

It’s a concept we often apply to a person, someone who's able to cope with difficult circumstances. But more and more, the word is being used in the context of how communities respond to issues like traffic, hurricanes, affordable housing and rising seas.

Days after Hurricane Irma battered South Florida, Rufus James walked through his Liberty City neighborhood in Miami looking for paid work to chop down trees and clean up yards.

Like many Floridians, James, 57, was going on day four with no electricity. At home, he had three grandchildren to feed. They’re eating “cornflakes and whatever we can come up with. I’m looking for some food,” he said.

Before the storm, James said he worked odd jobs — helping elderly neighbors mow their lawns or move heavy items. Post storm, no one was paying for help yet.